Our Lottery Project

Clifton Suspension Bridge is a Charitable Trust. Our Visitor Information Centre is staffed by volunteers and funded by your donations (and purchases from our shop). Since the closure of our original Visitor Centre in 2006, we had been looking for a way to develop a facility able to provide for the needs of the 65,000+ visitors we welcome every year. In December 2012, we were awarded a grant of £595,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund to help us create a brand new Heritage and Learning Centre on the Leigh Woods side of the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

The Story...

We worked with Alec French Architects, who came up with the design and layout of the new Centre, along with a new Maintenance Yard. Planning permission was granted in Autumn 2012 and Rydon began construction works in October 2013. The new Centre opened on 8th December 2014 - the 150th anniversary of the opening of the bridge.

The design concept - Alec French Architects

The building - June 2014

The finished building, seen during our Anniversary celebrations on 8th December 2014

Designing the Exhibition

In April 2013, we appointed CodSteaks as our interpretation design consultants. CodSteaks has over 30 years of design and build experience in the museums and heritage sector and have worked in Bristol on projects for M-Shed and ss Great Britain, but you may be familiar with their work as they are also model makers and set builders and created the scenery and ship for the Oscar nominated film 'Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists!' as well as sets for 'Wallace and Gromit'.

Our volunteers worked very hard to help us decide what we should include in our new exhibition, and how we should present it. Volunteers visited the Brunel Institute, ss Great Britain, M-Shed, the Rocks Railway and the Parliamentary Archives and helped with the format and presentation of information, proof reading text and developing the design of the exhibition.

A first draft of the exhibition design

Development of the design - March 2014

The completed exhibition - December 2014

About our Community Learning and Volunteer Officer

In June 2013, we welcomed Helen Jeffrey as our new Community, Learning and Volunteer Officer. Helen is with us for three years in a role funded by the HLF where she'll be developing new talks, tours and resources and leading community consultation.

As well as working on the new exhibition, Helen has worked to develop

a new talks and tours programme

an 'Explainers' project with volunteer greeters

family art activities

workshops for adult learners in association with the WEA

work experience placements and internships

an oral history recording scheme

consultation activities and focus groups to find out what visitors think of the new exhibition

Hummingbird films - to produce a new documentary about the Bridge - now on show in the Heritage and Learning Centre

A team of students from UWE (headed by Dr. Charlotte Crofts) and Calvium Ltd - to create a new mobile phone app

The Workers Educational Association (WEA) - to create new courses for adult learners

West of England Local Enterprise Partnership - to create careers training opportunities for young people

Knowle West Media Centre - to create a city-wide game for young people

Creative Youth Network - to develop a programme of confidence-buiding activities for young people

Consulting the Community

We'd like to thank all of the following people, who helped to give us a clearer idea of the services we decided to provide and who helped to shape our project!

St George's Primary School

St Werburgh's Primary School

St John's Primary School

Merchant's Academy Secondary School

St Mary Redcliffe and Temple Secondary School

Mangotsfield School, Specialist Colege in Engineering and Science

Ashton Gate Primary School

Perry Court Schools

Marshfield Primary School

University of Bristol (Professor Colin Taylor and Professor Guy Orpen)

University of the West of England (Charlotte Croft and Professor Johnathan Dovey)

Our Place and Doctor Randy Lee Comfort

Worker's Educational Association (Lesley Dale)

Hareclive Youth Centre

Hareclive Girl's Group

Bristol South Disabled Young People

Hartcliffe NEET Group

Freedom South

Out and Proud

Open Access Members of South Bristol Youth Services

Cliftonwood & Hotwells Historical Society

Future Brunels

Creative Youth Network

SS Great Britain and the Brunel Institute

Underfall Yard

M Shed

The Architecture Centre

Destination Bristol

Bristol Museum and Art Gallery

Bristol Records Office

Bristol Post

Ironbridge Museums

South West Federation of Museums

Menai Bridge Community Heritage Trust

Tower Bridge

Newport Transporter Bridge

Ruth Gofton and John McVerry, Heritage and Community

Jo Reid, Calvium

Mandy Lievers, Avon Gorge and Downs Wildlife Project

June Burrough, St Paul's Residents

Tina Bond, Children and Young People's Services, BCC

Elke Hein, Community Learning Teams

Victoria Stanfield, National Trust, Leigh Woods

Val Lowden, Retail Advisor

Melanie Rees, Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator

Penny Snow, Age UK

Adrian Andrews

Mike Pascoe

Francis Greenacre

Alison Turner

Libby Houston

Julie Reynolds

Gordon Young

Kathie Knowles

Mike Crozier

John Mitchell

Heritage Stone Access

Ray Brown

Marion Roach

Pete Hillier

Anna Farthing

Sabrina Pisoni

Mike Rowland

What Happens Now?

Our brand new Visitor Centre is open from 10am-5pm daily throughout the year. Entry is free, so come along and enjoy our wonderful exhibition or have a chat with our wonderful volunteers! Take a free tour of the bridge every Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holiday between Easter and the end of October or keep an eye on our events page where you'll find a list of all our family craft sessions, walks, talk, tours and underground adventures. Our CLV Officer is still with us and is busy planning lots of exfciting new projects to improve resources for schools visiting the bridge - as well as developing fun new workshops for all ages. This is just the beginning and we have lots more plans in process!

Get Involved!

We know the Bridge is magical and we'd really like to know why it feels special to you. We would be especially interested to hear from anyone who has a story to tell! Perhaps you walked the chains as part of a maintenace team, proposed to a sweetheart, stole the lightbulbs for your student digs, travelled over during an important journey or sailed under on a ship finishing an amazing voyage, or just looked at the view every day from your window. Maybe you have a photo of your grandfather or great grandfather in his tollman's uniform, pictures of a long ago family holiday or souvenirs collected by relatives with a story behind them.

We're also always delighted to hear from anyone who would like to volunteer with us. Lead tours, work with schools, help to run our shop or be here to help visitors from all over the world to have a great day out.